The following are my story about the unpredictability of seeds and events, and my message relating the parables from Mark 4 on seeds to current Christian Mission.

Surprising Seeds

In this ziplock bag are a few different kinds of seeds.  All of the gardeners here will recognize what most or all of these seeds will become, but that is because of past experience.  There is little in the appearance of these seeds to show us what they can become.  ….

  An Ontario farmer by the name of John McIntosh found some apple tree seedlings growing in an area he was clearing….

 There are many things which end up surprising us.  In 1517, a Catholic priest by the name of Martin Luther posted a list called 95 Theses in which he challenged the sale of indulgences by the Catholic Church.  He was trying to reform the Catholic Church.  Instead, the Church kicked him out, and the Lutheran Church was born,

Samuel de Champlain started a small French colony at the place we call Quebec City.  They managed to survive their first few winters with the help of the First Nations people.  That small colony eventually became Canada.

Craig Kielburger at the age of twelve started a project called Free the Children.  Today he is a founding member of an organization that has over a million members around the world dedicated to helping children.

  When we do what we feel called to do, no matter how small it may seem at the time, we never know what it may become, just as even gardeners and agricultural scientists never know for sure what exactly a seed may become.

Silly Stories about Seeds

Fred dipped his beet seeds in syrup before planting them.  Ed asked him why he did that.  Fred’s reply was that he wanted to grow sugar beets.

Jesus often told silly stories to surprise his listeners and push them to considering new possibilities.  One of them was the story about the mustard seed.

The empire of heaven was supposed to be about clean and holy things.  Mustard was a weed crop, much like rapeseed was in its day.  Just as my uncle cursed the growing of rapeseed because it spread so easily, most farmers resented the appearance of mustard in their fields.  While it was an important source of oil and useful as a flavouring, only farmers with marginal land would deliberately grow it.  To compare the empire of God with a mustard seed had to be one of the silliest things Jesus could have said as far as his listeners were concerned.    Then to go on to describing it as growing into a large bush where birds nested was even more silly.  This silly story had to mean something, and it clearly pointed to the empire of God as being different from what most people expected.

    Anybody who thinks they fully understand a parable is almost certainly delusional, but I see some ideas related to this story.  It seems that the empire of God is not just for the pure and holy, the clean and socially acceptable; the dirty and profane, the marginalized and the naughty may also have a place there.  And, out of what seems like a poor choice of material, God can make incredibly good things happen.

            It also points to the possibility that everything, no matter its status, has the possibility of a purpose of doing good for others.  We can even be bold enough to suggest that the most important purposes of all things involve doing good for others.

As to how this happens, we have our first parable.  There is a lot of mystery in the germination of seeds and the growth of the resulting plants.  I know that seeds have chemical and physical systems for evaluating how much moisture is in the soil, how long they have been dormant, and how healthy the temperature of the soil is, and to use this information to decide when to sprout, but I don’t know what these systems actually are or how they succeed in triggering the DNA in the seed to send the signal to start growing.  I know DNA controls the growth of plants in a dynamic relationship with the environment and between adjacent cells.  We know so much today about germination and growth, but we also know there is much yet to learn.  With this in mind, let us consider the context for these parables.

            People were terribly unhappy with living under the rule of the Romans, and their own local leaders, and they were close to desperate in wanting something better, hopefully the empire of God brought in by the expected Messiah.  They were looking for something that will look like what they already have, only better.  Jesus told them that what he was offering was not what they were expecting.  His first story had the message that the establishment of the empire of God will happen mysteriously, that it would not happen in a manner understandable to human logic.  Just as the farmer did not know how his crop grew, perhaps Jesus even did not know how God was going to use the seeds he was planting to grow the empire.  And, even if he did know, his followers did not have to know how what they were called to do would result in creating the empire of God.  Just as a farmer’s mission is to plant, cultivate and harvest in a dynamic relationship with the seeds and plants, their mission is to plant and cultivate the seeds of the empire of God without knowing how it happens.

Today we are called to plant and cultivate without being assured we will be the ones to harvest the results.  We are called to trust God and trust the Spirit.  We are called to plant no matter how small our seeds may be.  And we are called to focus on relationships.

   Farmers do their work in relationship to the land, the seasons, the weather, their suppliers, and their customers.  They do their work with a clear sense of purpose.  And they do it trusting that, if this year’s crop is a poor one, they are to try again next year anyway.  They might consider making adjustments, or adding extra crops or varieties, but they will try again.

   As followers of Jesus, we do our work in relationship with God and Spirit, in relationship with our beliefs about Jesus, in relationship with each other, our community, and everyone else who touches on our circle of influence.  We are called to take time for study and for prayer just as a farmer takes time for cultivation.  And we are called to trust, and to keep trying, even when success is rare.  We are also called to have open minds and hearts, ready to include anyone who might help advance the empire of God, and to accept the empire God is providing, even if it is not the empire we want.

May the Spirit help each of us hear and see opportunities to plant seeds of God’s empire, cultivate helpful relationships, and to trust enough to keep planting and cultivating, even when it seems pointless.  Amen.